Connelly: Obama looks like big winner in Ames local caucus

Joel Connelly is at a Democratic presidential caucus in Ames, Iowa. Connelly has been covering the Iowa caucuses since 1988 and he reports that interest and turnout look to be very high this year. The following are some of his observations:

UPDATE

The initial count is in. The tally is:

187 for Barack Obama.
84 for John Edwards.
74 for Hillary Clinton.

The Clinton coordinator is standing by me trying get Biden people into Clinton’s camp so she can have 15 percent of the delegates to be viable (at this caucus location – there are 1,780 others across the state).

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*At the caucus location I’m at they reported 386 people in 2004. Tonight there are more than 500.

*I’m seeing lots of signs for Hillary Clinton, John Edwards as well as many stickers for Barack Obama. There are also signs of support for second-tier candidates like Joe Biden and Bill Richardson.

*Each of the big three (Clinton, Obama and Edwards) have precinct coordinators at this Ames location.

If the rest of Iowa turns out the way this precinct is, it’s going to be huge.